A string of drive-by shootings in the Lower Valley may be retaliation for gunfire that sent a 13-year-old girl to a Seattle hospital, where she remains in critical condition, detectives said Friday.

The girl’s family, who said she’s recovering from a blood-filled lung, calls the shootings a case of mistaken identity.

"We’re not retaliating against anybody," Silvia Rocha, the girl’s grandmother, said Friday in an interview at her Sunnyside home.

"I just want this to stop."

Late Thursday and early Friday morning, dozens upon dozens of rounds were fired into at least six homes from Granger to Grandview. Remarkably the gunfire hurt no one, but came close to the people inside, some of them small children, authorities said.

Detectives have made no arrests and have no suspects.

Authorities suspected all five shootings were gang-related and are investigating the possibility that they are retaliation for the Wednesday night drive-by shooting on 10th Street in Sunnyside that sent the girl to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.

Some members of the girl’s family have the last name of Flores, leading to speculation by police and others that her shooting is connected to Miguel Flores. Earlier this month, his court testimony helped convict on Outlook man, 23-year-old Jesus Fabian Perales, of the murder of 14-year-old Francisca Hernandez-Ramirez, whose throat was slit before her body was dumped in a Lower Valley canal. But Rocha and her family say they are not related to Miguel Flores.

"Maybe they confused it," she said.

Authorities said all the dots — or none of them — may connect in the spate of shootings.

Read More...

Canadian police officer suffered a broken jaw following a run-in with a member of the Hells Angels in Mexico last weekend.

He was among a group of officers from Quebec who were vacationing in Playa del Carmen, a sea resort in southern Mexico that’s also known as a favourite hangout for Quebec gangsters.

The officer had gone to a bar in nearby Cancun with two colleagues and at one point he stepped away to snap a picture of the biker.

When the off-duty officer failed to return, his two friends went looking for him. Assuming he had returned to the hotel, they went back to their room and realized he was missing. They returned to the bar and found him bloodied and bruised from a serious beating.

Read More...

Police say three men were shot and a woman was beat up during a biker gang's New Year's Eve party in Kingston.

The gunfire happened at about 3:45 a.m. in the small Ulster County city, 60 miles south of Albany.

Authorities tell the Daily Freeman and Times Herald-Record that two of the wounded men were in serious condition. All four victims were hospitalized.

Investigators think the woman was bludgeoned with a pistol.

Det. Lt. Timonty Matthews tells the newspapers the party was held in a building that a Newburgh motorcycle gang had converted into a clubhouse.

Read More...

BIKIE war has erupted between the Comanchero and Notorious over plans to set up a chapter at Bondi Beach.

Firebombings, extortion and street assaults have exploded in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs as the rival gangs battle for turf supremacy.

The firebomb attack at Coogee Ink yesterday morning escalated the simmering feud to new levels.

The tattoo parlour, on Coogee Bay Rd, is owned by Comanchero national president Daux Ngakuru and his right-hand man Mark Buddle.

Buddle, 32, was released from prison last week for his role in a daylight brawl with Notorious boss Allan Sarkis and his enforcer David Lima.

The trio, and a fourth man Michael Murray who is an associate of Buddle, clashed outside Bondi Ink on October 28. The tattoo parlour is also linked to the Comanchero.

Read more: http://www.news.com.auhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/bikie-war-bombing-rival-gangs-up-the-ante-for-beach-dominance/story-e6freuzi-1225978229575#ixzz19o4RXwKYexclusively revealed the dramatic spike in clashes between the gangs earlier this month.

The battle has centred on a turf war. Notorious wants a bigger piece of the lucrative Bondi, Coogee, Clovelly and Maroubra markets.Notorious bikie chiefs began targeting the traditional Comanchero turf after senior members, including president Mick Hawi, were arrested for their alleged roles in the bashing death of bikie associate Anthony Zervas.

The death triggered a war with the Hells Angels, which has ended.In response to the new threat, the Comanchero went on a recruitment drive to beef-up its membership.Earlier this year they began targeting the Kings Cross cash pot - the nightclub strip protected by Notorious.Police sources said the Comanchero was considering opening a Bondi chapter

Read More...

Maine’s attorney general released a video clip today of federal agents’ attempt to arrest an Outlaws’ motorcycle gang member last summer at a small house on Sandy Circle.

The agents shot and killed Thomas Mayne on June 15 during a nationwide roundup of 27 members of the Outlaws, four of them in Maine.

Attorney General Janet Mills announced Tuesday that the agents were justified in using dead More..ly force in self-defense against Mayne, 58, a former enforcer with the Outlaws motorcycle gang.

The video is silent for the first 11 seconds, when police can be seen walking slowly toward the brown house, past a car and a pickup truck parked in the driveway.

The sound starts just after several puffs of smoke burst from windows, indicating shots fired from inside the house.

The remainder of the 1-minute, 31-second video includes the sound of rapid gunfire and an agent shouting for people to come out of the house with their hands raised above their heads. It also shows heavy smoke from gunfire rising above the house and police moving quickly around the property.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were involved in Mayne’s arrest because he was considered a high-risk suspect, Mills said in her report, which was based on intreviews with 40 people and forensic evidence.

Mayne had shot a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang in Canaan during a feud between the two clubs and had boasted about becoming famous for resisting arrest.

When ATF agents, state police troopers and Old Orchard Beach police descended on the house at 5 Sandy Circle, they were met with gunshots fired from a window.

Four of the ATF agents, armed with rifles, returned fire, shooting a total of 20 rounds, the report said. The exchange took seven seconds.

Mayne’s body was found inside, still clutching a six-shot, .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol that he had emptied toward the officers. Police also found a rifle and a shotgun in the room.

Six of the agents’ rounds hit Mayne in the head and neck. A seventh round injured both legs, the report said. Nobody else was injured.

Mills concluded that when the agents fired at Mayne, they believed deadly force was being used against them and it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others, according to her report.

The report didn’t identify the ATF officers who fired, saying that releasing their identities could put them in danger.

Mayne was the Outlaws’ regional treasurer when he was killed. His arrest warrant was the result of a months-long undercover investigation that yielded warrants for, among others, Outlaws national President Jack Rosga of Milwaukee.

The indictment issued in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., alleged conspiracy, drug trafficking, illegal possession of firearms, attempted murder and witness tampering.

Read More...